KSFO Host Blames Planners For Advertising Pull-Out

by Tom Siebert, Monday, Jan 15, 2007 8:47 AM ET MediaDailyNews MediaPost

WHY IS KSFO, THE CONTROVERSIAL ABC Radio affiliate in San Francisco, losing advertisers? Apparently, media planners are part of the problem. At least that's what KSFO host Melanie Morgan said during a special live call-in session the station aired Friday afternoon to address her morning drive-time team's controversial comments over the past two years.

"If there are sponsors who listen to these idiots, and I'm not sure there are, despite what they say," asserted Morgan, "but if that's the case, I know who it would be. It would be some craven little time buyers at an advertising agency someplace who have no guts whatsoever."

It took roughly two hours for the right-wing talk station KSFO's four hosts to reach media planners on their list of people to blame for the station's hemorrhaging of advertisers in the wake of an Internet flood of audio files of the program's eyebrow-raising content.

SNIP (go see the whole article here link) Free registration required.

Although the program was promoted as no-holds-barred and welcomed calls from both supporters and critics, the deck was stacked. The morning of the special broadcast, those liberal bloggers posted an email blasted the night before to hundreds of thousands of conservatives across the country, written by Morgan, asking them to call into the show as a show of support. The hosts defended sending the email by pointing out the program streams live on www.ksfo.com, and thus, it has many online listeners.

But that should not be relevant for advertisers, since most of the commercials are not broadcast online.

Morgan's morning co-host Lee Rogers was the most defiant. He claimed he didn't want to do the special, and that "if you're waiting for an apology, you'll be waiting a long time."

He also seemed to threaten former advertisers. Responding to an email question, Rodgers declined to name advertisers that have withdrawn their support, but added: "People who want to play that boycott game seem to forget this is a sword that cuts both ways. We have plenty of people that listen to this radio station that say 'hell, if somebody is trying to shut up the people on my favorite radio station, I don't think I want to give them any money,' so it could work two ways."

Although Morgan claimed that all but one of the departed advertisers had come back, she would not identify them. None of the four confirmed advertisers that departed--Visa, MasterCard, Federal Express and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation--were available for comment late Friday.

The entire special program can be heard at www.ksfo.com.

Emphasis on CONFIRMED advertisers that departed is mine.

I mean I can understand insulting their listeners, some people like that, but the time buyers at an advertising agency? I thought KSFO might get an * next to their name in time buyers computers from now on. After those comments I'll bet KSFO gets seven asterisks and an exclamation point!